Wednesday, July 13, 2011

From the Collection - Boy's WWII-era Kimono (Propaganda Kimono)

This is a cotton boy's kimono that is lined for winter. It's in great shape & is mostly interesting for the belligerent symbolism on it. When we bought it in Japan, our friend, Noriko couldn't believe how obvious it was...the little boy, holding a Japanese flag is sitting on a globe. The owner of the antiques store we were in started laughing when he saw her face! Of course, it's something they learn about in school in Japan, but to see it printed as a piece of fabric (and think about it--there were probably yards and yards of this fabric printed), really surprised her. I like children's clothing because a lot of care goes into the creation and decoration of these items.

There are examples of Japanese technological achievements everywhere: railroads, airplanes, binoculars. "Go forth & conquer!" the clothing seems to be telling the boy (Update: Actually it's a propaganda kimono. Here's a link to a Metropolitan Museum exhibit, which had 2 such kimono, one for a little boy (like ours) and one for a woman made of silk with gold thread!) This is just one piece of children's clothing that we've used to decorate our bedroom; hope you like seeing it!Music? My favorite song by Lindberg, だってそうじゃない , (Datte sou ja nai!?), from 1993. That's a great live version. Maki Watase rocks!!